redmarsshit | mistleglow: a winter kiss meme

mistleglow: a winter kiss meme.

The month of December has been a cold one in Anchor, with the bots working hard to bring a little winter joy to the city. This year, there's a little extra surprise - the bots welcome the participation of the nanites, who are able to join in with the winter holiday protocols for the first time in a long time following their long imprisonment.

And what are the nanites doing? Well...this winter wonderland has been missing a conspicuous offender: the mistletoe. That's where the nanites come in...

▶ The nanites will be floating around in little swarms, lit up bright with various colors, and when they run into any sentient creature, they will enclose them in a harmless invisible shield with a radius of approximately three feet by three feet. Once the characters are entrapped, they'll be stuck for exactly one hour...unless they kiss!

▶ There is no compulsion to kiss, and characters are welcome to just wait out the hour and hope they're stuck with a good conversationalist, but if they want to get on their way, they'll have to kiss their fellow captive, in a specific way depending on the color of the nanite swarm that's trapped them.

▶ The bots will be helping by helpfully informing any trapped characters they need to kiss as they pass by. They won't say what kind of kiss because that would make it too easy. But at least now you know, right?

▶ This meme can be counted as game canon and used for AC if threads continue into January (don't forget: December is check-in only) if both parties wish. Characters who are not in the game are welcome, and threads from this meme can also count for application samples! Come join us!

▶ How to Participate: Just post a top-level detailing the types of kisses you're interested in, and then tag around to other people's top-levels.

▶ Kiss Type Legend:

RED: MOUTH ● ORANGE: NECK ● YELLOW: CHEEK
GREEN: FOREHEAD ● BLUE: HAND ● VIOLET: BUTTERFLY

Navigation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Kieran sits and, true to his word, he listens. He's quiet and focused, tilting his head ever so slightly when Ben hesitates--and he can see why. Such things were, to put it nicely, taboo in his time (although he has no idea what the future looks like), but outside of his initial surprise, Kieran doesn't care either way. It's simply not his business.]

[Scratch that. It is his business, but only insomuch to make sure his friend was happy. If this mystery guy brought Ben joy, then that's good enough for Kieran.]

[So he keeps listening up until that question, and that's when his focus breaks. His brow lifts and his shoulders relax when he hears someone familiar.]

Yeah! He's a nice boy. Takes a little gettin' used to, but he's helped me a bunch.

[ Kieran's lack of a reaction is a relief, to Ben. He speaks a little more confidently, from that point on. Still embarrassed, but with less long gaps, less obvious unease. He should have known Kieran wouldn't be awful about it. Kieran isn't awful, even if he's from such a different time and place. But it's so difficult for Ben to really expect to be treated well, even now.

He glances up from his cuff, sees Kieran's face. There's no disgust or disapproval, there. Not even pity.

When Kieran calls Cole a nice boy, Ben just... beams. ]

He's helped me, too. It's what he does. He helps and helps but if you do even the tiniest thing to help him, he acts like - he's just - not a lot of people go out of their way to be kind to him. And I want to. All I want to do is... is be around him, and make him smile, and hear him laugh, and share the things I love with him, and read to him, and make him feel better when he's scared or sad, and -

[ There are other things Ben thinks about and wants, too, but well. Kieran doesn't need to hear those. Ben is working on being less closed-off and shy, but he's got limits. He's not going to talk about wanting to kiss Cole, even if it's something that's been on his mind just a startling amount, lately. ]

[The fine lines under Kieran's eyes slowly deepen as a grin starts to spread across his face, following the list of things he finds wonderful about Cole. There's something almost intoxicating about listening to another person talk about something--or in this case, someone--they care about more than almost anything else in the entire world.]

I startin' to think yer just lookin' fer a reason to brag instead of advice.

[HE'S TEASING.]

[ Ben's face is very flushed, by now, and he covers his burning cheeks with his hands. He ducks his head forward when Kieran very gently teases him, shaking his head and saying: ]

I'm sorry, I promise I'm not trying to brag or anything, I just - can't seem to stop talking about him.

[ Or thinking about him. Ben knows that he's infatuated. He's seen his siblings go through it, he's read about it in books, but he's never felt it before. He'd had no idea how potent it would be, how wonderful and distracting and terrifying all at once. ]

I'm not used to feeling like this.

[ Ben glances up to see that Kieran is smiling at him, that he doesn't just look tolerant or patient, but genuinely happy for him. Still clutching his own face, Ben says: ]

The only advice I was looking for, I guess, was - how to keep myself from screwing it up.

[ Happiness like this feels so impossibly fragile, to Ben. Like it can't possibly last. And he still values Kieran's opinion, Kieran's wisdom and advice. No matter whether Kieran himself believes he is qualified to give guidance. ]

[If only Kieran could see him! He'd have plenty to say about those red cheeks and goofy grin. He can hear the gentle tap of ben's palms against his cheeks, however, and can guess what's happened.]

[His smile widens.]

Hmm...

[Despite that smile, he's treating ben's question seriously.]

...Well, uh, w-what are you expectin' to go wrong?

I - I don't know. Nothing specific.

[ Ben does know, though. He knows where his anxieties lie, the cracks inside him, the shattered places. It's just... difficult to talk about. But Ben trusts Kieran, deeply.

So he sucks in a small breath and explains in a low voice: ]

He promised he wouldn't let me hurt him, but I guess - I spent so much of my life convinced I was evil and that anyone who got close to me would be in danger. Part of me is still worried. Cole is so... good, and I just. I couldn't live with myself if I made things worse for him, when he's already been through so much.

[ It's not the kind of worry that has an easy answer. Ben has been striving hard to unlearn all those things Reginald had taught him to think about himself, but the work is long and hard and some days it seems endless. ]

I guess all I can do is just... try to treat him right.

[If there's anything in the world that Kieran Duffy can understand, it's the fear of completely fucking something up. If there's anything he can understand even more, it's actually fucking up.]

[The look on his face is nothing short of empathetic as he listens to Ben's concerns.]

[When he first tried to talk to Mary-Beth, the conversation imploded on itself in spectacular fashion, and he hadn't helped.]

Yer not evil, Ben. I-I know you know that, but, uh, it helps to hear, you know?

And yer not gonna make things worse fer Cole. Just by tryin' to treat him right yer already makin' sure yer not gonna.

[He scratches the back of his neck.]

Besides, i-if you accidentally did do somethin' that, I dunno, h-hurt his feelin's? That doesn't mean that you m-messed up everythin'. That's why you talk and make up.

It does. [ Ben thinks about just leaving it there, but instead, he says, voice quiet: ] It helps a lot, to hear it. I don't - know it every day, you know?

[ He glances up at Kieran, a small and slightly rueful smile at one corner of his mouth. It's hard, when he wants to be proud of the progress that he's made, admitting that he still has bad days. That this whole not hating himself thing is a work in progress, still. Ben wishes it were just a switch he could flip, a single choice he could make. ]

Thank you, Kieran.

[ In a burst of fondness he reaches over, taking Kieran's hand. His touch is careful, and he makes enough rustling noise as he moves so that Kieran will not be surprised. He's getting used to small measures like these. Then, in an impulsive moment of fondness, Ben brings Kieran's hand up to his mouth and plants a quick kiss to the back of it. It's an affectionate gesture, childish and noisy and, well, silly. Kieran brings out the silliness in Ben, at times. Makes him feel a little less like an old man before his time.

There is a distinctive POP as the bubble around them vanishes, the nanites ceasing to glow and flying off quickly to harass some other unsuspecting residents. ]

Wait, that's it? Seriously? That was all it took, this whole time?!

mistleglow: a winter kiss meme

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